The government said in the federal budget it would scrap the previously bipartisan-backed National Water Commission set up by the Howard government, and last year cut COAG’s Standing Council on Environment and Water.

John Williams, a founder of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, has criticised the changes.

Precious commodity.

''The current federal government appears intent on trashing the Howard heritage and retreating from its leadership legacy on national land and water policy,'' Dr Williams wrote in the Australian Water Association’s newsletter.

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Water concerns may intensify over the next year, with the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual National Water Account showing storage levels in the main populated regions dropped from 93 per cent in June 2012, to 75 per cent a year later. They are currently about 63 per cent.

The drop is even sharper for the Murray-Darling Basin, where storage levels have dived from 91 per cent two years ago to about 57.5 per cent, according to Grace Mitchell, a senior hydrologist with the bureau.

Drying in the east over the past 24 months. Photo: BoM

The prospect of an El Nino weather event forming in the Pacific - which typically means below-average rainfall for much of Australia - could lead to more falls in storage levels, with less inflow and greater water use, particularly from farmers.

''There are some signals of lower rain to come,'' Dr Mitchell said. "We do have periods of plenty and periods of not so much abundance, and one of those might be coming up.''

Audit role

Water Commission chairman Karlene Maywald said its role had been to audit whether governments were meeting water use goals laid down a decade ago. These include restoring environmental flows lost to over-allocation of both surface and ground water, particularly to agriculture.

''We can’t afford for there to be backsliding against the progress we’ve made,'' she said.

The budget saving of $20.9 million over four years was ''small'', not least because the commission’s auditing and other tasks would have to be picked up by - as yet unnamed - other agencies, she said.

The government said it maintains "a strong commitment to progressing water reform and we will continue to champion the principles of the National Water Initiative," according to a spokeswoman for senator Simon Birmingham, the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for water issues.

“There are a range of agencies who already do a lot of policy work in the water space and we anticipate some of the functions of the NWC may end up in the Department of Environment, some may end up in the Productivity Commission or some in ABARES," the spokeswoman said.

Climate shift

Richard Davis, a member of the Wentworth Group and former science adviser to the water commission, said the government was yet to make clear ''whether they’ll even continue the [commission’s] responsibilities and who will be responsible for them''.

Both Ms Maywald and Dr Davis warned against the Environment Department being given oversight role for its own water management.

“What critical is that it’s an organisation with appropriate independence to carry out those functions, and it’s resourced sufficiently to do the job properly,” Ms Maywald said.

“You can hardly have the federal bureaucracy marking itself," Dr Davis said, adding that staff cuts within the department itself also undermined its capacity.

Dr Davis said that while the government’s scrapping of the commission was ''a very bad decision'', the failure to prepare for the longer-term threat posed by climate change was worse.

''We are moving into drier periods for southern Australia, especially the south-west and the south-east, with much less rainfall and much less runoff,'' he said.

''We’re bound to run into more intense, bigger droughts in the near future, and it’s the wrong time to be dismantling the apparatus that served us well in the last drought.

''We’re living on borrowed time and we should be investing for what’s coming our way.''

Dr Williams noted Senator Birmingham stated in 2012 that the Water Commission's role ''in holding the states and the Commonwealth to account for actually delivering on water reforms is critical. Their role in providing expert analysis and advice is absolutely critical.''

''The government has signalled that some of the very important tasks currently undertaken by the NWC will be conducted by the [Environment] Department, undermining the independence of those assessments and audits,'' the spokeswoman said.

''Under the current proposal, the government will be assessing the effectiveness of its own water management strategies, which is unacceptable,'' she said.

34 comments

Australia's current LNP governments, be they federally or at the state level, are just not up to the job of responsible government in the best interests of all Australians. They appear hell-bent on destroying Australia.

Commenter

Marion says

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 7:16AM

Seems like short-term self-interests to the detriment of long-term benefits to the people.

Commenter

Interesting

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 11:52AM

I don't understand why caring for the environment is a left/right issue.Every person who wants to repeal a price on carbon should be recorded saying they would rather have $5 per week than leave their grandchildren a decent planet

Commenter

Franky

Location

Sydney

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 12:39PM

+1 marionsays - they seem to have no idea do they?

Commenter

margie1

Location

Orange

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 1:18PM

So what your saying is the Carbon Tax is the only method by which someone might care for the Environment. That's why its a Left / Right Issue. Some folks don't think causing a massive impost on the Australian Economy is worthy of the 1% effect possibly Australia has on Global Emissions.

Commenter

BigTedd

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 1:24PM

One would think it a great idea to know what exactly is Australia’s sustainable population given, “Australia's total agricultural water use for 2012-13 was 11.9 million megalitres, which was 2.9 million megalitres (32%) more than in 2011-12.

More than two-thirds (72%) of this use was in the Murray-Darling Basin, which amounted to 8.6 million megalitres.

The states using the most water were New South Wales with 5.2 million megalitres, followed by Queensland and Victoria each with 2.6 million megalitres.

Water applied for irrigation accounted for 93% of total agricultural water use nationally in 2012-13” (ABS).

Since 2000 the “Australian population has increased from 19.153 million to 23.4 million,” amounting to a 4.24 million (22.17%) increase (ABS).

One wonders just how long this kind of stupidity can be tolerated by the Canberra wizards.

Commenter

Pen of hrba

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 1:47PM

Franky

I wrote much the same in my letter to dear old Uncle Clive.

The P.M. has often repeated claims of having a mandate to repeal the carbon price by claiming, “A great, big new tax,” a “Wrecking ball through the economy”, and “Wipe Whyalla off the map.” Intended to become an ETS in 2015 the $6.3 billion carbon price (2013-14) amounts to 70 cents per person per day had been a poll tax. I suggest hardly a wrecking ball given its 0.4% of 1% value of GDP of $1525 billion. These facts beg the question of the real reason for all of the false repeated claims. I suggest wearing a Miner’s hat provides one with the answer.

Commenter

Pen of hrba

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 2:08PM

BigTedd, one would think the free market, small govt party would want a market based solution that costs less and does more instead of the govt intervention that costs more and does less.

Commenter

Franky

Location

Sydney

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 2:21PM

While I appreciate that every Government stumbles over its own baggage, is there not a pattern here that needs to be addressed.. To reduce funding for science, education, and research, and ignore the advice of the experts - that is sociopathology that can only be derided.

Commenter

Ross

Location

MALLABULA

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 7:29AM

It is the psychopathology of the religious right. Our front bench and government is loaded with these nutters. The rationalists have been asleep at the wheel, if sensible people don't hurry up and get it the damage these crazies are doing will be with us for decades.